Koi Reflections

Koi Reflections

Image Size 15" x 22"

Watercolor

Well, I did paint koi on paper this week but it's not abstracted like last week's painting.  My intention was to do another acrylic painting but to use paper instead of canvas.  I decided to use watercolors instead because I just got a new brand of watercolors that I was excited to try.

Golden Artist Colors Inc., known for their acrylic paints, has a new line of watercolor paints called QoR (pronounced 'core').  Their watercolors are made with a different binder called Aquazol instead of gum arabic, which is the commonly used binder in other watercolor paints.  The paints are supposed to have more density of color and dry without dulling like so many watercolors do.  Also, they are supposed to re-wet in the palette more easily.  You can read more about them on Golden's website.

I was very excited when I heard that Golden was making watercolors because I love their acrylic paints. I also like them as a company.  They offer workshops that teach artists all about their acrylics and various mediums and their website has a ton of useful information and videos for artists.  Their virtual color mixer is really fun to use.  You should check it out.

I had high hopes for the watercolors and they haven't let me down.

I enjoyed working with the paints.  The colors I used in this painting were indanthrone blue, quinacridone gold, quinacridone burnt orange, pyrrole orange, cad. yellow (not their brand) and a little bit of cobalt teal.

The colors are definitely intense and I needed less paint to get the strong colors.  You know how I love strong, bright colors!  I'm not sure if they dry less dull than other watercolors or not.  I think I would need to paint identical paintings with the different brands to see if there was a difference.  The paints re-wet very easily in my palette and gave strong color without a lot of brush swishing.

I really like the paints and I am looking forward to using them on a poured painting next.  I think that because the colors are so intense, I'll probably be able to use less paint.  

Koi Klatch

Koi Klatch

Image Size 20" x 30"

Acrylic

I had so much fun painting this painting.  I started by throwing orange and yellow paint on it and then deciding where the koi were.  I wish I had taken a picture of it at that stage.  Then I poured and dribbled and dripped paint in many thin layers to create a sense of depth.

Before I threw the paint on it, I put on a base coat of thinned gesso and moved it around with a small piece of mat board to give it some added texture.  It doesn't show up a lot but in a few places, that texture definitely adds some interest.  This is done on a stretched canvas which isn't what I would usually work on when using very thin acrylics but I do like the texture of the canvas showing through.  I will probably try this again on paper and see how different it looks.

I've always enjoyed painting koi and I think this is my favorite so far.  

Sky High

Sky High

Image Size 6" x 6"

Watercolor

I haven't painted on TerraSkin for awhile so I decided to do this week's painting on that surface.  I was able to paint the background over the entire paper and then lift out the lighter areas and paint the darker areas over the blue.  The ability to lift the color back to the pristine, white paper is definitely a plus with this surface.

Calm Creek

Calm Creek

Image Size 29" x 10"

Watercolor

I've painted this scene before in oil.  This is a watercolor and is much larger.  As I look at this photo, I can see that I need to go back in and add more autumn colors into the leaves of the trees that are leaning into the picture.  I don't take pictures of my paintings until Monday afternoon and that's when I usually see changes that need to be made that I don't see when I look at the actual painting - probably because I'm looking at it too intently and miss the obvious.  Also, lately, I seem to barely be finishing my weekly painting Monday afternoon and I don't have time to make changes before I post it.  Maybe I should be managing my time better.

I did spend the earlier part of the week adding some darks to last week's painting. I am much happier with the it now.  I think it would have had more of a glow if I had used watercolor rather than acrylics though.  Here is the redone version.  If you are getting this post by e-mail and would like to compare it to last week's painting, go to my blog.

I still think I like the one I did a couple of weeks ago in watercolor as a study better than this one.  What do you think?